Bomb kills journalist - first in Iraq this year

Kimi Yoshino, Los Angeles Times

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 31, 2008

An Iraqi television cameraman for a Shiite-backed satellite news station was killed when a roadside bomb detonated near a security checkpoint in Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital, station officials said Wednesday.

The blast also killed a driver and seriously injured a female reporter, who remains hospitalized, the station said.

Alaa Abdulkareem Fartusi, 29, is the first journalist to be killed this year in Iraq, in what has become the world's deadliest place to cover a story, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Fartusi, who had worked for two years at al-Furat, a station funded by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, is survived by a wife and two daughters, ages 1 and 3.

Elite runners start the first wave of Bay to Breakers 2018San Francisco Chronicle

Coyote trots around Golden Gate parkTed Andersen, SFGATE

"Apart from being a colleague, he was a very good friend," al-Furat reporter Ahmed Mehdi said. "He was always optimistic, always happy. If there was sadness, he would be the one smiling trying to console everyone. We miss him as a friend more than anything else."

Fartusi was part of a crew traveling to Samarra for a story commemorating the February 2006 bombing of the Golden Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq. The group left Baghdad on Monday and spent the night in Balad. They were headed to Samarra on Tuesday morning when the bomb exploded, striking their van, Mehdi said.

The station does not believe the crew was specifically targeted, Mehdi said.

According to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, at least 207 journalists and media workers were killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003 - not counting the latest deaths.

The report, issued early this month, showed only one non-Iraqi journalist - a Russian - was among 48 news personnel killed last year.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists lists at least 125 journalists and 49 media support staffers killed since the war began, with about 85 percent Iraqis.

In Hamiya, south of Baghdad, a dispute broke out Tuesday night between local police and members of the U.S.-backed Awakening Council, a volunteer security force.

The disagreement centered around at least five - but as many as 25 - council members who were allegedly wrongly detained and jailed.

Accounts of the incident varied, with police and local officials saying that members of the council attacked a police station and tried to steal weapons.

Iraqi army and Awakening Council officials said the matter was resolved after a brief dispute that did not result in any deaths or serious injuries. The detained security force members were all released.

Sabah al-Janabi, head of the local Awakening Council, said the accounts had been overblown in an effort to incite sectarianism and sabotage the council's efforts.

In Mosul, a drive-by shooting Wednesday killed a university professor and one of his students. Also in Mosul, a roadside bomb blast struck a police commando patrol, killing one officer and wounding two, said police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.